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Bringing Liquor on Board


vlnovak

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WE just returned from the 11 day out of san diego and you can carry all you want on board when you leave san diego. We found a Rite Aid at the corner of B street and 3rd, it is near the trolly tracks by the fountain in the administration build. the prices are very cheap kettle one $15.00 wine $12 beer and pop cheap too. It was less than the ship prices on some things.Once you get into ports in Mexico it is harder as they will take it away from you it you openly carry it on, however we did get some black vodka in Acapulco on. It is right across from where the ship docks and says something about tequilla. Hope this helps vlnovak

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when our bar bill was getting too expensive, which it did, we started sneaking it on...dark alcohols in cola bottles and clear alcohols in water bottles....got them on every single time..... when we boarded... everyone just threw their alcohol, in water bottles, sealed in plastic bags, in their suitcases...nothing was taken

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yes you can bring a case of what ever you what when you come on board inSan diego. In fact you can get off the ship before it leaves and bring more if you could not carry enough on. I saw a guy with a blue rolling cooler on the Mercury 17th cruise and also a man with a big box of booze. I put about 6 bottles in my carry on an just wheeled it in, has to go to skanner, but they do not care what you bring on in san diego, however if you are not sneeky in the other ports, such as, bring it in in your hand in the store liquor bag they will take it from you and give it back to you on the last day of the cruise. I asked my they do not sell it to you a does rcl from the ship store and he said that the store is leased out from someone other than the ship so they can are not allowed to compete. happy sailing

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We are very loyal to HAL, which allows you to bring all the wine and soda that you can carry. Celebrity has some interesting itineraries so we are thinking of giving them a try. What is the policy on wine and soda? (DH is hooked on MT Dew) How about European ports, if I find a neat bottle of local wine in Italy can I plan on drinking it on my veranda without a hassle?

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We are very loyal to HAL, which allows you to bring all the wine and soda that you can carry. Celebrity has some interesting itineraries so we are thinking of giving them a try. What is the policy on wine and soda? (DH is hooked on MT Dew) How about European ports, if I find a neat bottle of local wine in Italy can I plan on drinking it on my veranda without a hassle?

 

Soda -- no problem. Even the Celebrity crew do this to get their favorites and to save a few $.

 

I don't know how they handle bringing wine aboard at foreign port stops. I've purchased some interesting local liquers at various Caribbean ports and had no complaints.

 

As for taking wine aboard at embarkation -- no problem. We took 8 bottles along for our recent 11 nt. trip on the Summit for 4. Didn't last long! As reported, there's a $15 corkage charge if you'd like it served to you at dinner.

 

Rather than having you ambling into the restaurant with bottles under your arms, the "correct" procedure is to write your cabin and table number on the bottles, and hand them over to your cabin steward for delivery to the dining room. The wine steward will assure that it is held at an appropriate temperature until dinner. Since this typically means an extra run for your assistant steward, be a sport and check the dinner menu early and give them your bottles as early as you are able. I liked to try to assure they had them by 5:00 so as not to interrupt them while they were working over the cabins of those at early seating.

 

Note about wine on Celebrity M-Class ships. Do NOT be bashful about asking to see and order from the specialty restaurant wine list when seated in the main dining room. It's a more complete list with some interesting selections that you won't be seeing on the regular dining room wine list. It's nice if you can let the wine steward know the day ahead, though, if you know the entree schedule. Saves them a run down to the other cellar area.

 

Another nice feature -- if you don't finish a bottle (yours or theirs) at dinner, and it's got the wherewithall to spend an overnight, your wine steward will be happy to store it for you until dinner the next evening. I've even had a few somewhat raw cabernets that actually benefitted from the experience.

 

My recollection is that Celebrity is charging about 1.5X retail, so they aren't sticking it to you. That said, feel free to bring along anything special to you. As an example, we like (and still have) '97 Silver Oak (Alexander), and a variety of 1990 German TBA and BA (dessert wines). Can't find anything quite like either of those on the lists.

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We bought wine in European ports and took them to the cabin without any problems. We just had them in plain plastic bags (didn't think to take our Celebrity tote) and they went through the scanner without comment.

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On my last Zenith Cruise in Jan 05 I bought 4 bottles of booze in Panama. It was in the cardboard box that the store packs them in. In the scanning line the booze was confiscated. I expected this but about 2 hours after we took off the room steward knocked on my door and delivered the package. He told me the Chief Housekeeper told him to deliver my package.

 

I never opened the box (they were gifts) but I was pleasantly surprised to see they can be human beings in bending the rules.

 

But one thing about the Zenith. There is absolutely no buying liquor on board for in-room consumption!! I tried the first night to get some Crown and was told NO by everyone I asked. They follow that rule to the letter,,, at least on that cruise. Trust me, I asked everyone in authority if I could get one bottle for consumption,, NO Way I was told. So, my wife did what everyone else does,, ordered her Crown and gingers from the bar waiters. No problem.

 

don

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I did notice that you can have a liquor package delivered to your room. It is in the back of you book they give you when you book the cruise with your tickets in it. page 12-13 crown package is $55 which includes set ups.

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I did notice that you can have a liquor package delivered to your room. It is in the back of you book they give you when you book the cruise with your tickets in it. page 12-13 crown package is $55 which includes set ups.

 

Good point! On our Mercury and Century cruises last year - we smuggled our Absolute and Beefeaters on in our carry-on bags [will not check glass bottles in check in luggage]. But for our cruise in 16 days onf Century, we ordered two of the Bon Voyage liquor packages - one Absolute and one Beefeaters. Each package comes with 6 sodas and a can of nuts. In looking at the $50.00 price for each, you are not really paying that much for the convenience of having them in your suite when you arrive.

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the ones in san diego were fifths, and kettle was about $15.00. Absolute $10. they have sales on different bottles. If you are making martinee be sure and get olives and for cosmo get some cranberry juice as there is none on board in the buffet. I also brought my own shaker and glasses but the man at the martinee bar gave me two to use also. the ship has liter also liters are in the mexican ports.

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vlnovak,

 

Did you bring things in "under you arm" or simply set them in the scanner and let them go through? We are doing Hawaii for 2 weeks and several bourbon and beer drinkers with us. I'm wondering if it's worth our while to make a run to the rite Aid with a few extra suitcases..... Any more explanation you can give would be appreciated.

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In Honolulu, there is a liquor store right by the dock. If I remember right in was the back corner of a little shopping mall right across the street. We bought some wine, soda and beer here and carried on to the ship - we placed it on the scanning machine, picked it up at the other end and nothing was ever said.

I know this is a debated topic but my thinking has always been - we always have a large bar bill and what we carry on is for our in room consumption - much more convenient than having to order drinks and bring them to the room.

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The liquor store my mom shops at sells 750 ml "compact" bottles that are plastic and not glass, and are flattened rather than normal. She put one of vodka and one of rum in her checked luggage, and no one was ever the wiser. Her bag flew down on the plane, got loaded on the ship, and then delivered right to our stateroom. In the afternoons we'd get fruit juice punch from the cafe and mix up our own tipples :)

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